{
Choices for
Rhetorical Effect:
Different Audiences,
Different Choices:
& Articulating Style

The art of successful communication

Finding all the available means of persuasion in
a communicative situation

The art of making choices (a lot of choices)
when communicating (in any form) that are
based around the many contexts the
communication is happening within
Rhetoric






Purpose
Audience
Contexts (social, cultural, spatial, historical)
Genre
Medium
You
Rhetorical Sitation



Reverse Engineering Communication
Studying the contexts of a piece of
communication and looking for why the author
potentially made the choices they did
Why?


To learn for your own improved communication
To better understand the communication around
you
Rhetorical Analysis



Words have connotations that are wrapped up
in historical, social, cultural, and highly
personal contexts that effect their meanings.
Because of this, rhetorically savvy authors can
choose their words carefully to create specific
effects in their readers
Though we’ve focused mainly on words: tone,
syntax, punctuation, metaphor/simile, choice of
details, etc. can all be purposefully chosen for
specific effect.
A (perhaps) Overkilled
(but important) Point






Word Choice
Sentence Structure
Tone
Organization of Details
Details Included versus Left Out
Specific References
Though we’ve so far focused on words,
you can tell a lot about an author from
all of these things.
A 3-Step Process
 Identify Specific Aspect of the Writing (A
Choice the author Made)

Articulate Intended Effect of specific
choice and Why it Works (or maybe
doesn’t work in a critique)

Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose,
Audience, and/or Context
Writing About Rhetorical Choices

“Amongst all the criticism, Edmundson is sure
to offer praise about his students too.
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

“The author is sure to offer praise for his
students when he says that they tend to be
open-minded and overwhelmingly generous.
He uses a whole separate paragraph to make
sure this point stands out from the rest of the
essay.”
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

“The author is sure to offer praise for his
students when he says that they tend to be
open-minded and overwhelmingly generous.
He uses a whole separate paragraph to make
sure this point stands out from the rest of the
essay. This move is important because the
author spends the majority of the essay offering
critiques. Some praise lends balance and puts
the audience in a better mood to take his
critiques seriously (he’s not only bashing).
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

The professor assigns an open-ended,
guaranteed 50 point assignment where
students are encouraged to flex their creativity.
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

The professor assigns an open-ended,
guaranteed 50 point assignment where
students are encouraged to flex their creativity.
The professor hopes the students will take joy
and freedom in the creative process because
school work rarely allows this.
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

The professor assigns an open-ended,
guaranteed 50 point assignment where
students are encouraged to flex their creativity.
The professor hopes the students will take joy
and freedom in the creative process because
school work rarely allows this. The hope is that
students will find a way to incorporate that
creativity into the stricter, more requirementbased assignments throughout the semester.
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

The author chooses to call the proposed nuclear
power plant a “clean energy facility” because
he recognizes that the word “nuclear” is
frightening to some parts of his audience at the
city council. By using words like “clean” and
“energy,” he hopes to distract from the
potential dangers of the plant and put the
audience in a better position to be persuaded
towards the plant’s usefulness.
This is the kind of writing
we’re shooting for.




The author chooses/decides to/counts on
The reason for this is . . .
Considering this was written to/during/around
The effect of this is . . .
Words/Phrases you use a
lot in Rhetorical Analysis


Long Summary (I’ve read the articles and I’m
the audience for RRs)
How You Feel About the Issue/Argument of the
Paper (We can talk about that in class; keep the
rhetorical analysis focused on neutral analysis
of how the piece is written)
Things to Avoid at This
Point

“Saying,” in contrast to formal logic, can only
produce empirical cloudiness, an image that
again recalls Mallarme’s attitude towards the
impurity of everyday language. Logic can
show pure form in crystalline purity, in all its
adamantine hardness, as that which will never
be subject to the sullying flux of the contingent
world. It seems clear that underlying this
development is an attitude akin to the Platonic
mysticism that placed mathematics outside the
realm of temporal flow and ordinary language.

“The author makes reference to many
philosophical terms (such as “ontology”) but
gives no further explanation of what they
mean. From this choice, we can tell that the
author assumes the audience already has
knowledge of these terms.
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

“The author makes reference to many
philosophical terms (such as “ontology”) but
gives no further explanation of what they
mean. From this choice, we can tell that the
author assumes the audience already has
knowledge of these terms. This serves to
reward the knowledge of the intended
audience while simultaneously keeping less
advanced readers outside the text. The slightly
arrogant author likely did this on purpose to
make his ideas seem more unique or special.
A 3-Step Process
Identify Aspect of the Writing (Choice Made)
Articulate Intended Effect and Why it Works
Link Intended Effect to Larger Purpose

A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close
to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is
warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in
the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of
the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and
rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is
lined with trees—willows fresh and green with every spring,
carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of winter’s
flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs
and branches that arch over the pool.

Jennifer Lopez is doing her best to put on a happy face and
start over, while Ben Affleck lays low in Los Angeles following
the very public breakup of their engagement. Instead of pacing
the rooms of her Los Angeles home, wondering where her
engagement went wrong, Jennifer has made an effort to go out
and have fun in the company of her friends.

Do not add water. Heat, covered, in medium microwavable
bowl OR 2 individual microwavable bowls on HIGH about 3
min. Careful, leave in microwave 1 min., then stir. Promptly
refrigerate any unused portion in separate container.
Recommend use by date on can end. Store unopened can at
room temperature. If you prefer, open bottom of can with can
opener.

I have written to you several times over the past three
months requesting an explanation on why you have failed
to bring your account with us current.
By ignoring these requests, you are damaging the
excellent credit record you had previously maintained
with our company. In addition, you are incurring
additional expense to yourself and to us.
Unless I hear from you within ten days, I will have no
other choice but to turn your account over for collection.
I am sorry that we must take such drastic action but I am
afraid you leave us no alternative. You can preserve
your credit rating by remitting your check today for the
amount stated above.

Society has developed over the last few decades from a Barry
Lyndon gentility to a bunch of Thunderdome mooks.
Nowadays, thoughtless clods all across this great land of ours
do everything from clipping their fingernails in restaurants to
checking themselves for polyps in the buffet line. Look, I'm not
some tie-dyed karma maitre d' trying to seat everybody in the
no-conflict section. Day-to-day life, to say the least, can be
combative. As far as I'm concerned, the New Age goal of
perpetual, smiling bliss is a far worse hell than anything
imagined by Quentin Tarantino on windowpane. I don't want
some vacant-headed, defanged Quaker land. That's not civility,
that's banality. And I'm not talking Amy Vanderbilt civility
either, where there's nine forks arranged around your dinner
plate like some cutlery Stonehenge and if you choose the wrong
one you're sent away to become Edwin Newman's personal toy.

Idk f dis pRticulR pasag s aimed @ a specific audience. Hwevr,
praps itz safe 2 sA dat der r typz of audiences hu wd B mre
lIklE 2 put up W it n try 2 figa ot w@ it sEz. Otha ppl wd giv ^
almst instantly n mve 2 somit Ls.